While Donna sunbathes in the pleasure palace on the planet Midnight, The Doctor boards a local flight to witness the beautiful crystal waterfalls of the planet. All is going well on board for most of the trip: the passengers are friendly and the mood is absolutely pleasant. That is, until a mysterious force attacks the ship and infects one of the passengers. Trapped in the middle of nowhere with help a long ways off, The Doctor soon finds himself just as helpless as everyone else as fear and paranoia quickly grip the passengers.
I’ll give Russell T. Davies one thing; if he wants to he can almost absolutely find new and unusual ways to blow an audience away with a Doctor Who serial. And here with “Midnight” he both succeeds and fails in this regard.
First, this is not your ordinary Doctor Who outing. It is more a psychological thriller/horror piece designed to terrify and genuinlly freak out to the best of its ability. Again, as with “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead”, the supporting characters are typecast in roles that fit such a genre story such as this. Even The Doctor finds himself out of character, a man not in control of the situation but rather the soon to be helpless victim of a paranoid crew determined to use the airlock on him. Props again to David Tennant for showing another side of The Doctor we have never seen before.
However, putting the story in one tiny setting is something that I feel should be reserved for only those seven minute “Children in Need” specials Doctor Who has done in the past. Doctor Who to me is supposed to be above and beyond epic proportions. Keeping the story confined to one tiny shuttle for 45 minutes can be as effective to the horror atmosphere as it was aggravating for me hoping that the story would move elsewhere for a minute or two.
So yeah, this is a mixed episode, both excellent and frustrating as well. Luckilly, Davies must again be given credit for trying something new with the series. I’m sure he will take what this episode did best and be sure to add it to future installments if he opts to stay on as a guest writer in the series future.
Next Week: As Donna’s world falls down around her…Rose Tyler returns to help her save The Doctor and the world. I think the important part is that after a year and a half of waiting…ROSE IS BACK!!!
Rating-8/10
Friday, June 20, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Doctor Who S04E09-Forest of the Dead
With the Vashta Nerada hot on their trail and their small band of survivors dwindling fast, The Doctor and River Song are running out of time to save the day. As more and more of the mysterious library is revealed to them, so to is a bit more of their mysterious relationship. Meanwhile, Donna finds herself back home with the perfect husband, perfect children and an overall perfect life...too perfect to be real. Can she escape her virtual entrapment and return to The Doctor and when the chips are down and the times are desperate, what sacrifices will have to be made in order to rescue 4022 people?
The heart was defintley racing this week. After a stellar start off last week, Forest of the Dead proved it could continue the tour de force its predecessor started. Spectacular writing, genuine terror and mind boggling mystery all came together to make yet another perfect episode, probably the best one of the series thus far.
As per any real Doctor Who story, the mystery surrounding River Song and The Doctor, who have apparently met sometime in the future, never really gets a clear cut conclusion. Even more of a head scratcher was the fact that she knew something about The Doctor most people don't...his real name. But, as usual, the writers continue to keep The Doctor and elusive character in terms of his shourded past. Nothing is spoiled, and in the end it's probably better that way. It will be interesting to see if Song returns later on in the series and we can finally figure out what sort of adventures she and The Doctor had together.
Donna's story was pretty creepy taking an almost Matrix-esque approach to the real world vs. virtual world. It was sad to see her perfect life fall apart in the end, but it had to be done in order to get the big reveal of CAL in the spotlight. A little girl, centuries old trapped in the Library's control system as it's guardian. So sad. And Colin Salmon was back as Doctor Moon, again giving an errie yet awsome performance. Honestly, the Donna side of the story was kind of distracting from The Doctor's story and the chase going on in the library. But I won't hold that against this episode, not this time because I enjoyed it so much.
Overall, FANTASTIC!!! A true Doctor Who outing for the ages with a "everybody lives" finale that I haven't seen since Christopher Eccelston's days as The Doctor. Again, cudos to Steven Moffat and his spectacular writing. The series is in good hands.
Next Week-On route to the planet Midnight, something lurks in the plane. And one week from that...Rose Tyler returns
Rating-10/10
The heart was defintley racing this week. After a stellar start off last week, Forest of the Dead proved it could continue the tour de force its predecessor started. Spectacular writing, genuine terror and mind boggling mystery all came together to make yet another perfect episode, probably the best one of the series thus far.
As per any real Doctor Who story, the mystery surrounding River Song and The Doctor, who have apparently met sometime in the future, never really gets a clear cut conclusion. Even more of a head scratcher was the fact that she knew something about The Doctor most people don't...his real name. But, as usual, the writers continue to keep The Doctor and elusive character in terms of his shourded past. Nothing is spoiled, and in the end it's probably better that way. It will be interesting to see if Song returns later on in the series and we can finally figure out what sort of adventures she and The Doctor had together.
Donna's story was pretty creepy taking an almost Matrix-esque approach to the real world vs. virtual world. It was sad to see her perfect life fall apart in the end, but it had to be done in order to get the big reveal of CAL in the spotlight. A little girl, centuries old trapped in the Library's control system as it's guardian. So sad. And Colin Salmon was back as Doctor Moon, again giving an errie yet awsome performance. Honestly, the Donna side of the story was kind of distracting from The Doctor's story and the chase going on in the library. But I won't hold that against this episode, not this time because I enjoyed it so much.
Overall, FANTASTIC!!! A true Doctor Who outing for the ages with a "everybody lives" finale that I haven't seen since Christopher Eccelston's days as The Doctor. Again, cudos to Steven Moffat and his spectacular writing. The series is in good hands.
Next Week-On route to the planet Midnight, something lurks in the plane. And one week from that...Rose Tyler returns
Rating-10/10
Friday, June 6, 2008
Doctor Who S04E08-Silence in the Library
The Doctor and Donna land on the Library, a planetoid that is one gigantic book collection. The Library has come under attack, leaving no apparent survivors. Teaming up with a small crew of archeologists, one of whom seems to know much about The Doctor, the duo hurries to answer several hundred questions at once while staying alive in the process. What are the deadly Vashta Nerada? Who is the mysterious River Song and what is her connection to The Doctor? And, maybe most important of all, how is their current predicament connected to the dreams and nightmares plaguing a small girl back on present day Earth?
After two back to back weeks of somewhat subpar episodes, Doctor Who kicks it back into high gear with a frightful adventure worthy of being part of the saga. This is thanks, in no small part, to returning writer Steven Moffat, who gave us last seasons chilling “Blink”. Moffat knows how to inject any Doctor Who episode he writes with that massive dose of heart pumping adrenaline that drives the show from one point to the next with little time to breathe. It’s no wonder he has been chosen to succeed Russell T. Davies once he exits as head writer at the end of this series.
The story itself works similar to that of “The Sontaran Stratagem” as pulling all of the pieces together slowly in order to set up the massive payoff in part two. As I mentioned in my episode summary above, there are plenty of questions left unanswered at the end of part one of this story. In a way, not knowing those answers is just as frightening as the dreaded Vashta Nerada themselves, something worse than the Daleks apparently, which is something to really worry about.
The new characters introduced in this episode seemed to work off the stereotypical science fiction horror genre such as the “Alien Quadrilogy”. From proper doctors to dimwitted sidekicks, the gangs all here and one just wants to wonder who is going to get killed next and how. I was happy to recognize at least one familiar face in this new crowd. That face is Colin Salmon from the “James Bond” series, who plays the little girls psychologist with some kind of knowledge as to what is going on in the library. I can’t wait to see what kind of role he plays next week.
I loved this episode. It was old fashioned Doctor Who magic and horror all rolled into one 45 minute package. It’s still nice to know that the right combination of writers and actors can still pull things together. This is how you do a Doctor Who episode. Let’s just hope that part two can deliver a proper slam bang finale.
Next Week-The Library is no longer safe…not if The Doctor has anything to say about it.
Rating-10/10
After two back to back weeks of somewhat subpar episodes, Doctor Who kicks it back into high gear with a frightful adventure worthy of being part of the saga. This is thanks, in no small part, to returning writer Steven Moffat, who gave us last seasons chilling “Blink”. Moffat knows how to inject any Doctor Who episode he writes with that massive dose of heart pumping adrenaline that drives the show from one point to the next with little time to breathe. It’s no wonder he has been chosen to succeed Russell T. Davies once he exits as head writer at the end of this series.
The story itself works similar to that of “The Sontaran Stratagem” as pulling all of the pieces together slowly in order to set up the massive payoff in part two. As I mentioned in my episode summary above, there are plenty of questions left unanswered at the end of part one of this story. In a way, not knowing those answers is just as frightening as the dreaded Vashta Nerada themselves, something worse than the Daleks apparently, which is something to really worry about.
The new characters introduced in this episode seemed to work off the stereotypical science fiction horror genre such as the “Alien Quadrilogy”. From proper doctors to dimwitted sidekicks, the gangs all here and one just wants to wonder who is going to get killed next and how. I was happy to recognize at least one familiar face in this new crowd. That face is Colin Salmon from the “James Bond” series, who plays the little girls psychologist with some kind of knowledge as to what is going on in the library. I can’t wait to see what kind of role he plays next week.
I loved this episode. It was old fashioned Doctor Who magic and horror all rolled into one 45 minute package. It’s still nice to know that the right combination of writers and actors can still pull things together. This is how you do a Doctor Who episode. Let’s just hope that part two can deliver a proper slam bang finale.
Next Week-The Library is no longer safe…not if The Doctor has anything to say about it.
Rating-10/10
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Doctor Who S04E07-The Unicorn and the Wasp
The Doctor and Donna arrive in the roaring 20’s just in time for a big dinner party. Among the guests is distinguished mystery author Agatha Christie, one of The Doctor’s most favorite authors. But no sooner does this trio arrive that murder most foul is committed at the party. As The Doctor, Donna and Ms. Christie hurry to solve the mystery two things become clear pretty fast: the perp is among their small group and whoever he or she may be, they are anything but human.
Doctor Who does Clue, that’s the best way I can sum up this episode in a nutshell. The setup for an Agatha Christie themed story was seen at the end of Series 3 when The Doctor mentioned her to Martha, so it makes perfect sense he would get around to her sometime this series. However, this episode turns out to be probably one of the most uninspired and slow to the core episodes that leaves very little to the running wild imagination.
Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky about what to expect from a Doctor Who episode; but this outing seemed to lack a lot of that big scifi element that I watch the show for in the first place, instead trading it for full on mystery. Even the big, really fracking big Wasp from the title failed to do much to keep me interested.
Another thing, this type of story has been done before. The Doctor seems to have a penchant for meeting up with famous writers for a time period (Charles Dicken’s in Series 1’s “The Unquiet Dead” and William Shakespeare in Series 3’s “The Shakespeare Code”) What makes this episode pale in comparison to those stories was that it just doesn’t have the same energy and interesting characters as they did. I knew the name Agatha Christie from someplace or another and I knew she was an author, but I never knew what genre she was known for. For some reason, I never found her as likeably portrayed as Shakespeare or Dickens. Again, my opinions don’t account for everyone. Either you like an episode or you don’t. This just wasn’t my favorite “Who” episode, one had to pop up eventually. I know this review might be lacking in usual detail but it’s been a while and I don’t really want to watch this episode again. Sorry.
Maybe I’m just really getting all too anxious for the last half of the series, which was featured in a kick ass trailer this past weekend featuring a gun totting Rose, the return of the Daleks and the mention of the mysterious “Darkness”, which I fear might be something worse than the Daleks could ever be. That magic I mentioned in my review of “Partners in Crime” is about to come down hard and hopefully it will not disappoint.
Next Week-The galaxy’s biggest library hides secrets in the shadows.
Rating-6/10
P.S. I’m sorry it took almost two weeks to get this up, but I have been busy with work and family. But I’ll be more up to date in the future.
Doctor Who does Clue, that’s the best way I can sum up this episode in a nutshell. The setup for an Agatha Christie themed story was seen at the end of Series 3 when The Doctor mentioned her to Martha, so it makes perfect sense he would get around to her sometime this series. However, this episode turns out to be probably one of the most uninspired and slow to the core episodes that leaves very little to the running wild imagination.
Maybe it’s just me being nitpicky about what to expect from a Doctor Who episode; but this outing seemed to lack a lot of that big scifi element that I watch the show for in the first place, instead trading it for full on mystery. Even the big, really fracking big Wasp from the title failed to do much to keep me interested.
Another thing, this type of story has been done before. The Doctor seems to have a penchant for meeting up with famous writers for a time period (Charles Dicken’s in Series 1’s “The Unquiet Dead” and William Shakespeare in Series 3’s “The Shakespeare Code”) What makes this episode pale in comparison to those stories was that it just doesn’t have the same energy and interesting characters as they did. I knew the name Agatha Christie from someplace or another and I knew she was an author, but I never knew what genre she was known for. For some reason, I never found her as likeably portrayed as Shakespeare or Dickens. Again, my opinions don’t account for everyone. Either you like an episode or you don’t. This just wasn’t my favorite “Who” episode, one had to pop up eventually. I know this review might be lacking in usual detail but it’s been a while and I don’t really want to watch this episode again. Sorry.
Maybe I’m just really getting all too anxious for the last half of the series, which was featured in a kick ass trailer this past weekend featuring a gun totting Rose, the return of the Daleks and the mention of the mysterious “Darkness”, which I fear might be something worse than the Daleks could ever be. That magic I mentioned in my review of “Partners in Crime” is about to come down hard and hopefully it will not disappoint.
Next Week-The galaxy’s biggest library hides secrets in the shadows.
Rating-6/10
P.S. I’m sorry it took almost two weeks to get this up, but I have been busy with work and family. But I’ll be more up to date in the future.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Doctor Who S04E06-The Doctor's Daughter
When the Tardis is suddenly yanked from Earth, The Doctor, Donna and Martha are thrown onto the world of Messaline. Here, a faction of cloned humans and a faction of alien Hath are locked in combat over a mysterious object referred to as “The Source”. With Martha captured by the Hath and the human faction looking to gun down the pacifistic Doctor, the only hope of halting the escalating violence lies in the quick wit and survival instincts of a the human faction’s newest recruit, straight from The Doctor himself. That hope is Jenny…The Doctor’s Daughter.
The Doctor’s Daughter, while not the most superbly crafted episode of Doctor Who ever, has plenty of saving grace to it. While the potential for action sequences is toned down greatly, giving us a build up with no pay off of Human vs. Hath action, the character moments are what makes this episode great. David Tennant has been my favorite Doctor since he first appeared on screen and he continues to excel in the role by adding a new dimension to it…fatherhood. The way he is thrust into the role of the parent and has very little idea of what to do with his own flesh and blood gives him that bit of humanity that he rarely show, that is he is fallible and not all knowing as he would like to think he is. This is one situation that one simple sentence can’t solve for him. Donna also continues to impress, serving as more and more of the emotional support system The Doctor sorely needs in his life.
But there were some characters that slowed the plot down tremendously. Martha once again faces a similar situation like the one she was in at the end of her Torchwood tenure. Martha is underused and virtually useless in the story, used only as a poor attempt to add a bit of human understanding to the Hath side of the story. This is sad considering how much we all love her. However, we all also know she will be back for the tail end of the series. So hopefully she will have a much larger role then. She shares the role of underused material with the Humans and the Hath that inhabit the story as they come off as no more than two sides that need a quick refresher on the value of life to solve their differences. Needless to say, they were just plain boring.
The real saving grace of this episode is its title character, Jenny. Played by Georgia Moffett (who coincidentally happens to be the daughter of Peter Davidson a.k.a The Fifth Doctor, hence her actually being…well you get the idea) Jenny is a spark of brilliance to the show and I hope that we will be seeing more of her in the future. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous (I think I might be in love with TDD (for sake of the term being overused to the point of annoyance), she is simply fantastic; young, smart, shares her dad’s knack for solving problems quickly, everything you could expect from an offspring of our favorite Time Lord. And considering most of her abilities as a new Time Lord have yet to be fully explored, the series could go off in several directions, but personally I’m hoping she joins the Tardis crew one day soon.
The Doctor’s Daughter lacked plenty to make it an exceptional Doctor Who outing (it may even be the weakest installment of the series thus far) but there’s plenty to make it a worthwhile viewing...if only for The Doctor's amazing offspring.
Next Week-Solving mystery’s with Agatha Christie. Oh, and there’s a giant Bee too.
Rating-7/10
The Doctor’s Daughter, while not the most superbly crafted episode of Doctor Who ever, has plenty of saving grace to it. While the potential for action sequences is toned down greatly, giving us a build up with no pay off of Human vs. Hath action, the character moments are what makes this episode great. David Tennant has been my favorite Doctor since he first appeared on screen and he continues to excel in the role by adding a new dimension to it…fatherhood. The way he is thrust into the role of the parent and has very little idea of what to do with his own flesh and blood gives him that bit of humanity that he rarely show, that is he is fallible and not all knowing as he would like to think he is. This is one situation that one simple sentence can’t solve for him. Donna also continues to impress, serving as more and more of the emotional support system The Doctor sorely needs in his life.
But there were some characters that slowed the plot down tremendously. Martha once again faces a similar situation like the one she was in at the end of her Torchwood tenure. Martha is underused and virtually useless in the story, used only as a poor attempt to add a bit of human understanding to the Hath side of the story. This is sad considering how much we all love her. However, we all also know she will be back for the tail end of the series. So hopefully she will have a much larger role then. She shares the role of underused material with the Humans and the Hath that inhabit the story as they come off as no more than two sides that need a quick refresher on the value of life to solve their differences. Needless to say, they were just plain boring.
The real saving grace of this episode is its title character, Jenny. Played by Georgia Moffett (who coincidentally happens to be the daughter of Peter Davidson a.k.a The Fifth Doctor, hence her actually being…well you get the idea) Jenny is a spark of brilliance to the show and I hope that we will be seeing more of her in the future. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous (I think I might be in love with TDD (for sake of the term being overused to the point of annoyance), she is simply fantastic; young, smart, shares her dad’s knack for solving problems quickly, everything you could expect from an offspring of our favorite Time Lord. And considering most of her abilities as a new Time Lord have yet to be fully explored, the series could go off in several directions, but personally I’m hoping she joins the Tardis crew one day soon.
The Doctor’s Daughter lacked plenty to make it an exceptional Doctor Who outing (it may even be the weakest installment of the series thus far) but there’s plenty to make it a worthwhile viewing...if only for The Doctor's amazing offspring.
Next Week-Solving mystery’s with Agatha Christie. Oh, and there’s a giant Bee too.
Rating-7/10
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Summer 2008 Plans
I’m sorry this review of “The Poison Sky” came so late in the week. However, I am back home now and the internet signal going through my house is one of the worst on the planet. Therefore, my viewing and reviewing of the episodes may be postponed a bit but not by much. Don’t worry though I’ll still be posting reviews to the best of my ability.
And now that I am free from Junior Year havoc, I can also begin to work on my promised project to watch and review the entire first season of Torchwood. I’ll also be posting a new blog soon asking if you want me to try and review the previous new seasons of Doctor Who as well, to try and make this as close to a good compendium of Doctor Who knowledge (that is if I have any readers at all who are interested).
Anyway, comments are always open. Allons-y!!!
And now that I am free from Junior Year havoc, I can also begin to work on my promised project to watch and review the entire first season of Torchwood. I’ll also be posting a new blog soon asking if you want me to try and review the previous new seasons of Doctor Who as well, to try and make this as close to a good compendium of Doctor Who knowledge (that is if I have any readers at all who are interested).
Anyway, comments are always open. Allons-y!!!
Doctor Who S04E05-The Poison Sky
The world is in chaos. A large cloud of gas produced by Atmos vehicles is starting to spread across the entire planet and grow slowly towards its deadly density. While the world is in disarray, the Sontaran’s send a strike force to London to eliminate the remaining U.N.I.T. forces. And with Donna, Martha and the Tardis all in the hands of the Sontarans, The Doctor’s options are running low. As the world, literally, holds its breath, all brace for the final, desperate last stand to begin.
What started as a truly rousing, heart pumping story arc ended just as strongly as it began with this episode. We got a fair share of everything, drama, Doctor techno-babble and lots and lots of action sequences. Arguably the big payoff of this episode was the inevitable showdown between the Sontarans and U.N.I.T. The see saw change in luck for both sides at key moments in the story gave it its much needed boost of edge of your seat excitement.
I was quite relieved that Donna’s Grandfather made it out of the conflict unscathed (saved by Donna’s mother with an ax no less). Granddad has become one of my new favorite characters of the series, the wily old geezer who is serious when he needs to be, and I can’t wait to see what kind of a role he plays in the episodes to come. Donna herself got placed in an interesting predicament when she was beamed up to the Sontaran ship with the Tardis and forced to infiltrate to help The Doctor. Donna continues to grow on me, although I don’t think she will ever be as good a companion as Martha or Rose (who made a very creepy blink and you’ll miss appearance on The Doctor’s monitor when Donna tried to contact him: where the heck is she?)
Martha was a bit of a background presence this week. Much of her screen time was given to her doppelganger created by the Sontarans and even she was a bit wasted and less convincing of a creative clone, which in the end gives her presence away to The Doctor. But, as clearly seen in the last scene of the episode, she will have a bit more of a role to play next week.
Overall, not that bad a way to spend a Saturday. It was sad to see the boy genius die in the end as I would have liked to have seen him return in one form or another later on. But other than that, I was impressed. Oh, and for all of you hardcore lovers of the old Doctor Who serials, U.N.I.T. figurehead The Brigadier, was given a name only cameo this week. Turns out he’s still alive, but stuck in Peru of all places. While I did like the U.N.I.T. characters in this story, the presence of this character would have been an added bonus. Still, can’t have everything now can we?
Next Week: Trapped in space…with The Doctor’s daughter?
Rating-9/10
What started as a truly rousing, heart pumping story arc ended just as strongly as it began with this episode. We got a fair share of everything, drama, Doctor techno-babble and lots and lots of action sequences. Arguably the big payoff of this episode was the inevitable showdown between the Sontarans and U.N.I.T. The see saw change in luck for both sides at key moments in the story gave it its much needed boost of edge of your seat excitement.
I was quite relieved that Donna’s Grandfather made it out of the conflict unscathed (saved by Donna’s mother with an ax no less). Granddad has become one of my new favorite characters of the series, the wily old geezer who is serious when he needs to be, and I can’t wait to see what kind of a role he plays in the episodes to come. Donna herself got placed in an interesting predicament when she was beamed up to the Sontaran ship with the Tardis and forced to infiltrate to help The Doctor. Donna continues to grow on me, although I don’t think she will ever be as good a companion as Martha or Rose (who made a very creepy blink and you’ll miss appearance on The Doctor’s monitor when Donna tried to contact him: where the heck is she?)
Martha was a bit of a background presence this week. Much of her screen time was given to her doppelganger created by the Sontarans and even she was a bit wasted and less convincing of a creative clone, which in the end gives her presence away to The Doctor. But, as clearly seen in the last scene of the episode, she will have a bit more of a role to play next week.
Overall, not that bad a way to spend a Saturday. It was sad to see the boy genius die in the end as I would have liked to have seen him return in one form or another later on. But other than that, I was impressed. Oh, and for all of you hardcore lovers of the old Doctor Who serials, U.N.I.T. figurehead The Brigadier, was given a name only cameo this week. Turns out he’s still alive, but stuck in Peru of all places. While I did like the U.N.I.T. characters in this story, the presence of this character would have been an added bonus. Still, can’t have everything now can we?
Next Week: Trapped in space…with The Doctor’s daughter?
Rating-9/10
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